CATHOLIC OBSTETRICIANS MEET IN ROME
By Chiara Santomiero
ROME, SEPT. 2, 2011 (Zenit.org).- A group of Catholic obstetricians is meeting in Rome for their eighth international conference, aiming to discuss how they can better serve the culture of life where it is so greatly attacked.
On Aug. 31, MaterCare International opened its conference, sponsored by the Pontifical Academy for Life and supported by the contribution of the World Federation of the Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC).
Contributors such as Bishop Thomas Dabre of Poona, India, spoke of the particular threats to life in their regions.
Bishop Dabre explained how in India, there is still great respect for maternity and its dignity, but how “women and mothers suffer enormously from the persistence of widespread gender discrimination.”
He noted the growing use of sex selection in order to abort baby girls, resulting in India’s alarming imbalance of men and women.
Bishop Anthony Ireri Mukobo of Isiolo, Kenya, spoke of the challenges women face in his region. He noted how women are those most pressed by the drought, as they are the ones who have the task of finding water.
MaterCare is collaborating with the apostolic vicariate of Isiolo to build a 15-bed hospital for obstetric care and thus reduce the rate of maternal and infant deaths in childbirth.
